January 31, 2025 • 28 mins
Join us on this inspiring episode of Leap to Success with Mary Gaul as we welcome Suzanne Mitchell, a true embodiment of resilience and determination.
Suzanne shares her incredible story of taking bold leaps in life—from homeschooling her kids to exploring online stores and building a thriving business that has stood strong for 31 years!
Through ups, downs, and everything in between, Suzanne’s mantra has been clear: giving up is simply not an option. Her powerful insights and lessons about perseverance, adaptability, and staying focused on your goals will leave you motivated and inspired to take your own leaps of faith.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a parent, or someone looking for actionable inspiration to create positive change in your life, Suzanne’s story is packed with wisdom you don’t want to miss!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hello, hello, and welcome to the Leap toSuccess podcast.
I am so excited to be interviewing today one ofour Leap community members, Suzanne Mitchell.
And for those of you who are just tuning in tothe LEAP for Success podcast, just to let you
know, it is the conduit by which we sharewomen's stories of courage, bravery, success,
(00:24):
and diversity.
Each week we interview women, entrepreneurs,and leaders that have taken the leap in their
lives and inspire our global listeners to bemore, have more, and show up more so they can
live a life filled with joy and happinessthrough believing in themselves.
So with that being said we're going to jumpright in.
I know Suzanne and I'm so excited for thisinterview today because I just always learn
(00:48):
something every time I talk to Suzanne.
So let's just introduce you to the world.
So tell our listeners a little bit about yourstory of you and what makes you so awesome.
Thank you for having me, Mary.
I'm excited.
I am Suzanne Mitchell.
I own Zamar Screen Printing.
(01:09):
This is our thirty first year in business,which has had its ups and downs as you can
imagine, but we do how do screen printing,embroidery, promotional products.
So we primarily help businesses get noticedwith branding.
So that's in the form of corporate clothes,school attire, things like that.
(01:29):
We can help with trade shows.
And then we also do company stores, which is ahuge part of what we do.
We set up a platform where people can send alltheir people there, order clothes, they don't
have to do anything, no stock, no sending out,no distribution.
So it's very seamless and people can make moneyor not.
They can just pass that straight across totheir employees.
(01:50):
But yeah, so it's a great business.
We love branding stuff.
Love it.
Love it.
And it's so needed.
And she does all these fun, unique stuff fromeverything from a pen to hand clappers like
this.
So love all of the fun things that you get todo.
It must be a really fun job to be able to helppeople find something that represents their
business, right?
(02:10):
Absolutely.
The funnest part is talking to people aboutwhat do they want to do?
Who are they trying to reach?
Who are they trying to touch or ultimately getback into their company?
Just talking about how old are they?
What kind of walks of life are they?
Are they men?
Are they women?
That makes such a difference in what you maybewant to hand out to people.
And so anybody can go online and just ordersomething.
(02:33):
But I think it's important to talk about like,what is it you want this thing to accomplish?
What are you trying to get out there?
And so it's definitely the best part of the jobis talking to other business owners and
figuring out, you know, what are they going andwho are they seeing?
And that's the fun part for me.
Yes, yes.
And that's one of the brilliant things aboutany conversation.
(02:56):
Like I said, every time I talk to Suzanne, Ilearn something new, because she is talking to
so many people all the time and hearing aboutwho are their customers, what are their
customers' pain points, how do they need to getin touch with their customers, what are they
doing to build relationships with theircustomers.
Suzanne is just such a wealth of informationabout what's happening out there in the
(03:19):
business world and how people are taking careof the people that are important to those
businesses.
So we're going to put all of Suzanne's contactinformation in the show notes so you'll be able
to reach out to her, schedule a call with her,just have an amazing conversation.
And if you need promotional products or her webstores, we're going to talk about those again a
little bit later in the show.
(03:40):
But I encourage you to really reach out toSuzanne.
Start following her newsletter, link to her onLinkedIn.
You will be better off for having her in yourworld.
I can tell you that for sure.
Thank you, Mary.
Yes.
So the name of the podcast is Leap to Success.
Right?
So tell us about a time when you had to take aleap in your business or your personal life and
(04:05):
what then success looked like and maybe howlong it took to find that success.
Yeah, well, I would say our very first leap wasstarting this business.
I was 22 years old.
We'd only been married a couple years and myhusband worked for a large screen printer and
they burnt to the ground.
(04:26):
Literally, they had a fire in the building andthey were no longer going to go forward.
And so my husband came home and said, I thinkwe should start a screen printing company.
And I had sold insurance.
I knew nothing about this industry.
I mean, didn't know anything about screenprinting, how it worked, clothing, anything.
And that was a huge leap.
But I was like, okay, let's do this.
(04:47):
Yeah.
So I took what little sales knowledge I haveand we jumped out there.
So we were pretty instantly successful for alittle bit because there were some clients just
waiting to have screen printing done who werewere working with the other company.
But it became apparent really quick.
We needed to grow faster than we had capital togrow.
(05:09):
So we had made some really poor decisions andgetting equipment leases that were really
expensive, and we had to overcome all that.
And that took a lot of years.
It took a lot of years.
I'd say the first ten years of this businesswere doing great, doing great, struggling,
struggling, doing great.
You know, it's just an up and down.
(05:29):
It wasn't like we were instantly successful.
And this has been a breeze the whole time.
It took a lot of guts and resilience and youknow, you just have to have an attitude to
succeed.
You know, I never, I wasn't going to let thistake me down.
And so, but we had to do other things.
We did other jobs.
(05:49):
We did other outsourced.
We did all kinds of things to survive.
But I was like, we're gonna do this no matterwhat.
But you know, adversity comes at you at everyangle.
You know, we've had other things.
We had a check ring come in and steal a wholebunch of checks from us.
And we had $23,000 we lost in a day, literallya day.
(06:12):
And the bank didn't back us because theyweren't locked.
That was the final decision.
We're not gonna back you because the checksaren't lost.
And it was like, you just feel like, well,that's it.
We're not gonna make it.
Yeah.
I'm done.
Okay, I'm done.
And, but I think if you stay on in that spot,everybody starts in that spot.
(06:33):
I don't care how successful you are.
I don't care how positive a person you are.
I think your first reaction is, well, forgetit, I can't do this.
I'm done, this is terrible.
But it's the steps you take after that, youknow?
It's like, okay, this isn't the end of theworld, nobody died, We can fix this.
And it wasn't a long struggle.
(06:53):
Was it hard to not have that back?
Sure.
But we eventually overcame.
And I think so much of that has to do with yourattitude and just the steps you take.
Just because the first step isn't the rightone, take the next one, and the next one, and
the next one.
And sometimes you got to go right instead ofleft.
But it's just that general attitude of I canmake it, I can do this.
(07:17):
I'm a smart person.
I have my act together.
We're gonna figure this out.
And I think that's a lot of it, but I thinknobody thinks successful businesses go through
that.
And everybody goes through that.
We all go through that.
You doubt your decisions as a parent, you doubtyour decisions as a business owner.
It's just part of life, but it's the steps youcontinue to take that make the difference.
(07:40):
Yes, I love that message.
I love that message.
And it's so powerful because I think sometimeswe get almost sold a bill of goods.
Right?
So you go on the Internet, you see all thesecourses and workshops and other people, oh,
take my course and you can make $100,000 in sixweeks.
Right?
Or sign up for TikTok or whatever.
(08:01):
TikTok's in peril.
Sign up for whatever that is.
Just get on this social media platform and youcan be a millionaire in six months.
So people don't We see a lot of that messagingin our world.
And we get kind of convinced that it's justgonna be this easy ride and there's never any
(08:21):
struggles.
Right?
But anybody who runs their own business knowsthere is a lot of hard work.
It takes a lot of hard There's not a businessout there that's just instant click and you're
rich.
So, how did you cultivate that kind of we canfigure it out attitude?
Oh, how did I I think some of it is just who Iam.
(08:46):
I'm a get upset about something and then, okay,we're gonna fix it.
I'm not a live in that things are bad place.
Yeah.
It's just not who I am.
So that helps.
And then because I'm not that way and I'm kindof the top, I think everybody gets behind that.
So I have some team members who maybe wouldwallow in that, no, this is terrible.
(09:09):
But I choose to say, okay, then what can we do?
Let's figure out what is the next steps.
And I don't have all the answers.
I'm one person.
I need my whole team to come together andfigure out, okay, let's try this.
Did we ever think of this?
Could we do this?
You know, and you look at all the steps.
(09:29):
And so I think you need a good mentor.
I think everybody, I don't care how long you'vebeen in business, you need a good mentor and
you need coaching.
I think, you know, I know you do coaching andI've worked with me, but you need somebody else
to bounce your ideas off and think throughthose things and get everything out on paper.
And then you need people to help you implementit.
(09:50):
So I think getting the right team around you iseverything.
You can be the best leader on the planet, butif you don't have a team with you and all
working in the same direction, it's impossibleto get on the right road.
Just, you know, struggles.
And so I think it's so important that yousurround yourself with people who also aren't
(10:12):
gonna say, oh, that's it, we're done.
There's people that are like, no, okay, let'sfigure this out.
Yeah, because there are people like that.
Everybody has somebody in their life that'sjust like, well, done, I quit.
That's not helpful in a crisis, it's just not.
Have to have people around you who are going tohelp you see that road and get to it.
(10:32):
Yes, I love that advice.
I love that advice.
So really building your team of support withinyour business.
So it could be the people you hire, your W-2sor contractors, but then what are those outside
sources?
How you filling your mind and keeping yourmindset positive and seeing other people that
have gone through those struggles and reallycome out the other side?
(10:54):
And sometimes we see somebody that's successfuland we think, Oh my gosh, they're just so
successful.
I could never be like them.
And we don't realize that they've beenstruggling for twenty years and then this is
finally the year that they got in front of you,Right?
And you haven't seen their struggles the wholeway.
So we forget that everybody's had some of thosestruggles and those doubts.
(11:17):
People assume you're lucky.
I've got pulled that a lot through my life.
Oh, you're so lucky.
Everything comes to you or you're able towhatever.
And I try to tell people, you realize hasn'talways been this easy and it hasn't always been
this smooth.
Right.
(11:37):
Just because somebody looks like that on thetop doesn't mean they're not, you know, that
duck meme where they're standing across andtheir legs are that's part of life.
Like, everybody you perceive as supersuccessful probably sometime, if not right now,
is paddling like nobody's business.
(11:57):
You know, that's part of life.
And so perception can be very, you just assumeyou're the only one that's struggling.
Everybody else is doing great.
I'm the only one struggling.
Not yeah.
The other advice I have on that is talk topeople in your industry because so much of the
time what you're struggling with is somethingindustry specific.
(12:18):
And if you can get to trade shows or groups orwhatever of people who do what you do, you
start to hear, oh, I'm not the only one thathas this happened with customers or can't find
this product or whatever your problem is,that's a great place to hear.
And you just realize, okay, I'm going throughwhat everybody else is going through and then
(12:39):
it doesn't feel so bad.
Yes, that's great advice too, specificallywithin your industry, right?
So, I run peer advisory boards that have peoplefrom different industries come together once a
month and really share ideas and create a spacethat they can be vulnerable and say I don't
know what I'm doing here.
I need a better system for this.
I don't like the system I have.
(12:59):
And get advice from each other.
But if you can go to somebody within yourindustry, that's even better.
You're gonna get even more knowledge.
And it may take building some relationships soyou can get you know, people wanna project this
image like, I'm everything is great in mybusiness.
I'm wonderful.
Everything's great.
So you might have to work at building somerelationships so that you can have those deeper
(13:20):
conversations about what's really happeningwithin the industry and what their struggles
are.
Yeah.
I'm so sorry.
Suzanne, you are brilliant at buildingrelationships with people.
So what kind of advice would you give to peoplethat are getting ready to take the leap to
start their own business or scale up or dosomething new with their business and they need
to build relationships to do that?
(13:42):
What kind of advice would you give them?
Yeah.
I'm not I've always been in sales, but I'm nota quote salesperson.
We all are in sales, whether we realize it ornot.
Exactly.
But I'm probably the least salesy person you'llmeet.
I'm not, you know, I'm not naturally a hardcoresalesperson.
And so, you know, I just strive to find oneperson, whether if you go to a networking
(14:07):
event, which I highly suggest, but you know,the best way in the beginning to get to know
people is go where a lot of people in businessare, but just strive to talk to one person.
I'm not looking to meet 50 people that night.
I need a couple people that I made a realconnection with and really talk to people.
And you know, that doesn't mean immediatelysaying what you do and how they could buy from
(14:29):
you and let's get this going.
That is not, you know, it's aboutrelationships.
I want to know people.
We have kids, where are you from?
And you know, that just builds on itself.
Then if you can meet with them outside of thatmeeting and then, you know, I work hard to get
everybody on LinkedIn and connect with peopleon Facebook and, you know, get them on my
(14:50):
newsletter.
All those things just put them in my world.
But I really, really watch what's reallyhappening with people.
Like I'm on Facebook because I wanna know ifthe executive I work with or wanna work with
just went to Hawaii or lost their dog orwhatever.
That is huge connection.
(15:11):
When I can reach out and say, oh, your vacationlooked amazing.
That's not salesy, but man, do they respond.
Rarely don't get a response to that.
And so, think relationships is paying attentionto what people are interested in and be
interested genuinely.
Not, you know, you can't be fake, you got toreally be interested in people and find people
(15:35):
you have common interest with, you know.
I got huge business from hockey teams when mykids played hockey because you know where I was
at?
The ice rinks with people who had teams andneeded fundraising.
And you know, wherever you're at, be presentwith your business, but not in a salesy format.
Just, it comes up if you're just really talkingto people.
(15:57):
You know, one of my earliest sales coaches Ihad used to tell me, if you have beautiful
cookies and you never ask anybody if they wantany, you're probably never gonna get rid of
your cookies.
Right.
Yeah.
So he's like, always say what you do in a nonsales y way.
Let people know what you do.
You can when they're like, how are you doing?
(16:19):
How was your week?
Great.
But, man, we had a lot of production this weekor whatever.
Oh, what do you do?
That's, you know, it just happens and thenyou're interested in them and they're like, oh,
you're screen printing?
I need that.
So, you know, genuinely getting to know peopleis so much easier than cold calls or cold
emails or whatever.
(16:39):
That's a lot of rejection and I don't reallylike rejection.
So I just want to warmly talk to people.
I love that.
I love that.
It's such a skill that you have.
And one of Suzanne's taglines for herself ismatriarch of Zamar.
Zamar screen printing is her business companyor company.
Right?
And so, you do come across as this warm,caring, nurturing person.
(17:03):
Right?
And I think that's why it's it's easy for youto kinda build these relationships.
But that is a skill we can learn to develop andwork on.
And like you said, you've been working on itthrough your thirty years of running your
business.
And so I think that's really important advicefor us to say is people do business with
(17:25):
people, not businesses.
How we make them feel, how we make them feelseen and heard and recognized can go so far in
them wanting to do business with us.
And it doesn't have to be a big salesy push.
It can be something as simple as let's have aconversation.
I can help you Reading
(17:46):
books and going to things to learn how to makeconversation.
If that's a hard thing for you, then read up onit.
Get some things like, okay, I'm gonna ask abouttheir jewelry, comment on their beautiful red
glasses, whatever.
Think of three or four things like, okay, whenI see this person, what could I compliment them
on or whatever?
Just have something in mind then that, youknow, most people are pretty outgoing and will
(18:12):
reciprocate.
Rarely do you come up with somebody who justwon't talk back if you just come on not salesy.
If you just come on as a person, they're prettywilling to talk to you.
And you know, just capture all those people.
That's the other thing, capture them.
Once you have them, you can't be like, that wasa great conversation.
That's it, never going to talk to them again.
Like, you need to get with them on LinkedIn,you need to get them on your newsletter list,
(18:35):
you need to, you know, we do a postcardcampaign, we send out handwritten postcards to
our huge client base.
But you
know what I put on there?
How was your Hawaii vacation?
How was your new dog?
Whatever.
But I know that because I'm watching whatthey're doing and that's that relationship.
So you do have to make sure you've capturedthem in a way that it's continual.
(18:57):
One conversation isn't going to turn into ahuge sale.
I mean, it could, that's not the norm.
You're going to have to, you know, work on thatrelationship slowly.
Right, right.
And that's a great way for a leap for manypeople is going to a networking event, right?
Or maybe it's picking up the phone or reachingout to somebody and saying, Hey, do you want to
meet for a coffee?
(19:18):
And that may cause them a lot of anxiety,right?
So I think you've given some great examples ofhow to make it more conversational and taking
the pressure off of that conversation.
It's just the first of many conversations.
It's not a one and done, You buy from me or I'mout.
We're never talking again.
So if you go in with that attitude, it'sprobably not going be very successful.
(19:40):
Absolutely.
I love that way that you build relationshipsand that you really care for people and are
keeping up with what's going on with them.
Let's see if I have another question for you.
Tell us a little bit more about Zamar and whatyou do.
(20:01):
And you mentioned fundraisers before and sportsteams and some of the other people that you
work with.
So tell us a little bit about that.
I know you have these amazing web stores, sotell our listeners about those.
Yeah, we have a completely free to the end userweb stores so we can, we talk through, so say
I'm working with a sports team and you know,say they're the Eagles and they only want to
(20:26):
offer things on blue and black and pink orwhatever, they get full choice of that.
So we help them design a line of clothing andit goes up on a web store, so they may offer a
hoodie and a pair of pants and a tank orwhatever they want to offer.
They get full control over that as theorganization.
And then say, I'm going to sell that hoodie forthem too for $25 That's what we've just agreed
(20:49):
on.
I'm going to print as many as you have.
And so they listed on the web store for $30then that difference on every piece that we
sell, they get back as a fundraiser.
So it's a great way for them to get their nameout there.
And the success of those fundraisers completelyare dependent on how good a list and how well
(21:10):
you can distribute it.
So you have to have a good newsletter Facebookfollowing, a good way to get to your fans,
whoever that might be, and then they're very,very successful because I don't have access to
your people, but I can give you all thetechnology, get all the product, and make it
easy to put together.
So, some people choose to do it that way.
(21:32):
Some businesses, same thing, they get fullchoice over what kind of professional gear they
wanna sell and bags and things like that.
They may give their employees each $100 So,there's a coupon code issued, they get to go
and buy for free $100 worth of merchandise andthen we bill the corporation for those orders.
So, that's a great way they work.
(21:53):
Work with a certain amount of contractors thatwhen a new guy comes on, they need to be able
to get gear for the full five day work weekplus hats, so they just send them to the
website, they order all their stuff, it comes,and then it's billed to the company.
What that eliminates is all the headache in HR.
It is so hard when HR is busy working onpayroll and benefits and all these things, and
(22:16):
somebody comes in the office and says, I needfive small t shirts and I need a hat and I need
a beanie.
And you write that note and you write it downas a medium.
It happens a lot.
That's not their main job.
They're busy.
And then those get ordered and now they gotstock and nobody can wear and they got to
reorder the stuff.
This puts all that on the, you know, theemployee has to take that as themselves, get
(22:40):
on, do it, order the right size.
And so we just take all of that work out ofwhoever in the office is trying to gather that,
is not an easy I know that.
You know, and then the same thing, if you get100 orders that come in, usually the box goes
to the business person and now they're like,okay, Sarah's a medium and Bob's a large.
(23:01):
We take all that out of people's hands.
We basically put their garments in a bag and itsays Bob's items and what it is, and all they
have to do is hand him his bag.
Our phone number's on there.
If the size is not right, if whatever's notgoing, we handle all of that.
So, we just make it super streamlined and easyfor businesses to work with us, organizations,
(23:23):
anybody who just needs merchandise into theirpeople's hands.
Nice, nice.
I know working as a, you know, my kids were inschool and working for swim teams and the band
association and all that stuff and trying tokeep inventory of so many sizes of shirts and
how many do we sell, then you gotta store themsomewhere.
And they didn't sell this year, but we have adifferent design next year, so we got all these
(23:46):
old shirts.
It just becomes a nightmare.
And these web stores are just so brilliant.
And the fact that you don't have to distributethem, you can just have them shipped directly
to the person if you want to.
And the person running the organization doesn'teven have to touch the items, which is so nice.
It's just such a great way.
And if they need fundraisers, it's easy.
(24:06):
Parents want to support their kids' teams.
They want to support the school, that kind ofstuff.
So if they can use it as a fundraiser, it'sjust another win win opportunity for everybody.
Everybody's used to shopping online and goingand buying things and having them shipped
directly to your home.
So if you can do that at no cost to theorganization and just really tap into, again,
(24:29):
Suzanne's knowledge and her team about what isa good hoodie versus you don't want to order
stuff, put stuff in your store that isn't goingto hold up.
So really talking to an expert about what dopeople want and helping them walk through what
do your clients want, or what do the kids want,or what do the parents want.
Do they want hoodies?
(24:49):
Do they want zip up hoodies or pullovers?
Or what different age groups might want.
So I think that's just a brilliant service thatyou offer your clients.
Thank you.
Yeah, it's been very well received.
People who end up getting the fundraiser moneyalways say this is so much more than we've ever
made in the past.
(25:09):
Because if you order 50 shirts and you get themand you have 10 left over that you clearance,
all of your profit in the 40, you just wastedclearancing the last 10.
So, yeah, this is just so much more efficientfor them to make money.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes. I love it.
I love it.
Okay.
So again we're going to put all of Suzanne'sinformation in the podcast notes.
(25:33):
Wherever you're listening or watching the videoyou
can go
to the show notes and find out how to reachSuzanne at Zamar Screen Printing.
Is it Zamar is it Zamar Inc?
What's the website?
Zamar Screen Printing.
Zamar Inc.
You're right.
The website is zamarinc.com.
Am.
Yes.
I know.
As I started to say, was like, I think it'sshorter than that.
(25:55):
It's just zamarinc
dot
Awesome.
Awesome.
Okay.
Any last advice for anybody out there, inbusiness that's ready to take a leap and doing
something?
Oh, Just do it.
Don't be paralyzed by your circumstance.
Just because it didn't work today, just do it.
(26:17):
You have to try things, you have to be brave,and sometimes it's just taking that leap when
you're pretty sure this is not gonna work, butjust do it.
You have to be brave.
You didn't get into business to have everythingbe simple and somebody to tell you what to do.
Sometimes you just have to take the leap.
You just have to do it.
And I'm happy to meet with people.
(26:37):
I talk to people for half an hour for free.
Run stuff by me.
I love to talk marketing, love to talk ideas,super happy to do that.
So if anybody wants to reach out, I would loveto chat.
Awesome, awesome.
And they can book a call with you by going toyour website?
Yes, there's a link there and you can put myCalendly link to the podcast too.
(26:59):
In the show notes as Okay, great, great.
That's wonderful.
Yes, I highly recommend, as I said at the topof the show, I highly recommend you reach out
and have a conversation with Suzanne.
You will not regret it and you'll walk away abetter person for it.
Okay, well thank you again for being a Leap forLadies community member Suzanne, and for being
(27:19):
in business for thirty one years.
Congratulations!
And if our listeners out there are listeningand you're thinking I've got to be in a
community with this amazing woman, right?
I want to spend more time with Suzanne, thenconsider joining the Leap community.
All of the information about that will be inthe show notes as well, but you can go to
successmagnified.com then hyphen join leap andget all the information about the LEAP for
(27:44):
Ladies community.
We'd love to have you join us and then youcould have your opportunity to be on the
podcast as well.
So thanks again, Suzanne, for being on thepodcast today, and I appreciate you.
And I'm so glad that I get to have you in mybusiness world as one of my mentors and
friends, and can't wait for more people to getto meet you.
Thank you so much, Mary.
(28:05):
I had a great time.
Thanks.
Good.
Hello, hello, and welcome to the Leap toSuccess podcast.
I am so excited to be interviewing today one ofour Leap community members, Suzanne Mitchell.
And for those of you who are just tuning in tothe LEAP for Success podcast, just to let you
know, it is the conduit by which we sharewomen's stories of courage, bravery, success,
(00:24):
and diversity.
Each week we interview women, entrepreneurs,and leaders that have taken the leap in their
lives and inspire our global listeners to bemore, have more, and show up more so they can
live a life filled with joy and happinessthrough believing in themselves.
So with that being said we're going to jumpright in.
I know Suzanne and I'm so excited for thisinterview today because I just always learn
(00:48):
something every time I talk to Suzanne.
So let's just introduce you to the world.
So tell our listeners a little bit about yourstory of you and what makes you so awesome.
Thank you for having me, Mary.
I'm excited.
I am Suzanne Mitchell.
I own Zamar Screen Printing.
(01:09):
This is our thirty first year in business,which has had its ups and downs as you can
imagine, but we do how do screen printing,embroidery, promotional products.
So we primarily help businesses get noticedwith branding.
So that's in the form of corporate clothes,school attire, things like that.
(01:29):
We can help with trade shows.
And then we also do company stores, which is ahuge part of what we do.
We set up a platform where people can send alltheir people there, order clothes, they don't
have to do anything, no stock, no sending out,no distribution.
So it's very seamless and people can make moneyor not.
They can just pass that straight across totheir employees.
(01:50):
But yeah, so it's a great business.
We love branding stuff.
Love it.
Love it.
And it's so needed.
And she does all these fun, unique stuff fromeverything from a pen to hand clappers like
this.
So love all of the fun things that you get todo.
It must be a really fun job to be able to helppeople find something that represents their
business, right?
(02:10):
Absolutely.
The funnest part is talking to people aboutwhat do they want to do?
Who are they trying to reach?
Who are they trying to touch or ultimately getback into their company?
Just talking about how old are they?
What kind of walks of life are they?
Are they men?
Are they women?
That makes such a difference in what you maybewant to hand out to people.
And so anybody can go online and just ordersomething.
(02:33):
But I think it's important to talk about like,what is it you want this thing to accomplish?
What are you trying to get out there?
And so it's definitely the best part of the jobis talking to other business owners and
figuring out, you know, what are they going andwho are they seeing?
And that's the fun part for me.
Yes, yes.
And that's one of the brilliant things aboutany conversation.
(02:56):
Like I said, every time I talk to Suzanne, Ilearn something new, because she is talking to
so many people all the time and hearing aboutwho are their customers, what are their
customers' pain points, how do they need to getin touch with their customers, what are they
doing to build relationships with theircustomers.
Suzanne is just such a wealth of informationabout what's happening out there in the
(03:19):
business world and how people are taking careof the people that are important to those
businesses.
So we're going to put all of Suzanne's contactinformation in the show notes so you'll be able
to reach out to her, schedule a call with her,just have an amazing conversation.
And if you need promotional products or her webstores, we're going to talk about those again a
little bit later in the show.
(03:40):
But I encourage you to really reach out toSuzanne.
Start following her newsletter, link to her onLinkedIn.
You will be better off for having her in yourworld.
I can tell you that for sure.
Thank you, Mary.
Yes.
So the name of the podcast is Leap to Success.
Right?
So tell us about a time when you had to take aleap in your business or your personal life and
(04:05):
what then success looked like and maybe howlong it took to find that success.
Yeah, well, I would say our very first leap wasstarting this business.
I was 22 years old.
We'd only been married a couple years and myhusband worked for a large screen printer and
they burnt to the ground.
(04:26):
Literally, they had a fire in the building andthey were no longer going to go forward.
And so my husband came home and said, I thinkwe should start a screen printing company.
And I had sold insurance.
I knew nothing about this industry.
I mean, didn't know anything about screenprinting, how it worked, clothing, anything.
And that was a huge leap.
But I was like, okay, let's do this.
(04:47):
Yeah.
So I took what little sales knowledge I haveand we jumped out there.
So we were pretty instantly successful for alittle bit because there were some clients just
waiting to have screen printing done who werewere working with the other company.
But it became apparent really quick.
We needed to grow faster than we had capital togrow.
(05:09):
So we had made some really poor decisions andgetting equipment leases that were really
expensive, and we had to overcome all that.
And that took a lot of years.
It took a lot of years.
I'd say the first ten years of this businesswere doing great, doing great, struggling,
struggling, doing great.
You know, it's just an up and down.
(05:29):
It wasn't like we were instantly successful.
And this has been a breeze the whole time.
It took a lot of guts and resilience and youknow, you just have to have an attitude to
succeed.
You know, I never, I wasn't going to let thistake me down.
And so, but we had to do other things.
We did other jobs.
(05:49):
We did other outsourced.
We did all kinds of things to survive.
But I was like, we're gonna do this no matterwhat.
But you know, adversity comes at you at everyangle.
You know, we've had other things.
We had a check ring come in and steal a wholebunch of checks from us.
And we had $23,000 we lost in a day, literallya day.
(06:12):
And the bank didn't back us because theyweren't locked.
That was the final decision.
We're not gonna back you because the checksaren't lost.
And it was like, you just feel like, well,that's it.
We're not gonna make it.
Yeah.
I'm done.
Okay, I'm done.
And, but I think if you stay on in that spot,everybody starts in that spot.
(06:33):
I don't care how successful you are.
I don't care how positive a person you are.
I think your first reaction is, well, forgetit, I can't do this.
I'm done, this is terrible.
But it's the steps you take after that, youknow?
It's like, okay, this isn't the end of theworld, nobody died, We can fix this.
And it wasn't a long struggle.
(06:53):
Was it hard to not have that back?
Sure.
But we eventually overcame.
And I think so much of that has to do with yourattitude and just the steps you take.
Just because the first step isn't the rightone, take the next one, and the next one, and
the next one.
And sometimes you got to go right instead ofleft.
But it's just that general attitude of I canmake it, I can do this.
(07:17):
I'm a smart person.
I have my act together.
We're gonna figure this out.
And I think that's a lot of it, but I thinknobody thinks successful businesses go through
that.
And everybody goes through that.
We all go through that.
You doubt your decisions as a parent, you doubtyour decisions as a business owner.
It's just part of life, but it's the steps youcontinue to take that make the difference.
(07:40):
Yes, I love that message.
I love that message.
And it's so powerful because I think sometimeswe get almost sold a bill of goods.
Right?
So you go on the Internet, you see all thesecourses and workshops and other people, oh,
take my course and you can make $100,000 in sixweeks.
Right?
Or sign up for TikTok or whatever.
(08:01):
TikTok's in peril.
Sign up for whatever that is.
Just get on this social media platform and youcan be a millionaire in six months.
So people don't We see a lot of that messagingin our world.
And we get kind of convinced that it's justgonna be this easy ride and there's never any
(08:21):
struggles.
Right?
But anybody who runs their own business knowsthere is a lot of hard work.
It takes a lot of hard There's not a businessout there that's just instant click and you're
rich.
So, how did you cultivate that kind of we canfigure it out attitude?
Oh, how did I I think some of it is just who Iam.
(08:46):
I'm a get upset about something and then, okay,we're gonna fix it.
I'm not a live in that things are bad place.
Yeah.
It's just not who I am.
So that helps.
And then because I'm not that way and I'm kindof the top, I think everybody gets behind that.
So I have some team members who maybe wouldwallow in that, no, this is terrible.
(09:09):
But I choose to say, okay, then what can we do?
Let's figure out what is the next steps.
And I don't have all the answers.
I'm one person.
I need my whole team to come together andfigure out, okay, let's try this.
Did we ever think of this?
Could we do this?
You know, and you look at all the steps.
(09:29):
And so I think you need a good mentor.
I think everybody, I don't care how long you'vebeen in business, you need a good mentor and
you need coaching.
I think, you know, I know you do coaching andI've worked with me, but you need somebody else
to bounce your ideas off and think throughthose things and get everything out on paper.
And then you need people to help you implementit.
(09:50):
So I think getting the right team around you iseverything.
You can be the best leader on the planet, butif you don't have a team with you and all
working in the same direction, it's impossibleto get on the right road.
Just, you know, struggles.
And so I think it's so important that yousurround yourself with people who also aren't
(10:12):
gonna say, oh, that's it, we're done.
There's people that are like, no, okay, let'sfigure this out.
Yeah, because there are people like that.
Everybody has somebody in their life that'sjust like, well, done, I quit.
That's not helpful in a crisis, it's just not.
Have to have people around you who are going tohelp you see that road and get to it.
(10:32):
Yes, I love that advice.
I love that advice.
So really building your team of support withinyour business.
So it could be the people you hire, your W-2sor contractors, but then what are those outside
sources?
How you filling your mind and keeping yourmindset positive and seeing other people that
have gone through those struggles and reallycome out the other side?
(10:54):
And sometimes we see somebody that's successfuland we think, Oh my gosh, they're just so
successful.
I could never be like them.
And we don't realize that they've beenstruggling for twenty years and then this is
finally the year that they got in front of you,Right?
And you haven't seen their struggles the wholeway.
So we forget that everybody's had some of thosestruggles and those doubts.
(11:17):
People assume you're lucky.
I've got pulled that a lot through my life.
Oh, you're so lucky.
Everything comes to you or you're able towhatever.
And I try to tell people, you realize hasn'talways been this easy and it hasn't always been
this smooth.
Right.
(11:37):
Just because somebody looks like that on thetop doesn't mean they're not, you know, that
duck meme where they're standing across andtheir legs are that's part of life.
Like, everybody you perceive as supersuccessful probably sometime, if not right now,
is paddling like nobody's business.
(11:57):
You know, that's part of life.
And so perception can be very, you just assumeyou're the only one that's struggling.
Everybody else is doing great.
I'm the only one struggling.
Not yeah.
The other advice I have on that is talk topeople in your industry because so much of the
time what you're struggling with is somethingindustry specific.
(12:18):
And if you can get to trade shows or groups orwhatever of people who do what you do, you
start to hear, oh, I'm not the only one thathas this happened with customers or can't find
this product or whatever your problem is,that's a great place to hear.
And you just realize, okay, I'm going throughwhat everybody else is going through and then
(12:39):
it doesn't feel so bad.
Yes, that's great advice too, specificallywithin your industry, right?
So, I run peer advisory boards that have peoplefrom different industries come together once a
month and really share ideas and create a spacethat they can be vulnerable and say I don't
know what I'm doing here.
I need a better system for this.
I don't like the system I have.
(12:59):
And get advice from each other.
But if you can go to somebody within yourindustry, that's even better.
You're gonna get even more knowledge.
And it may take building some relationships soyou can get you know, people wanna project this
image like, I'm everything is great in mybusiness.
I'm wonderful.
Everything's great.
So you might have to work at building somerelationships so that you can have those deeper
(13:20):
conversations about what's really happeningwithin the industry and what their struggles
are.
Yeah.
I'm so sorry.
Suzanne, you are brilliant at buildingrelationships with people.
So what kind of advice would you give to peoplethat are getting ready to take the leap to
start their own business or scale up or dosomething new with their business and they need
to build relationships to do that?
(13:42):
What kind of advice would you give them?
Yeah.
I'm not I've always been in sales, but I'm nota quote salesperson.
We all are in sales, whether we realize it ornot.
Exactly.
But I'm probably the least salesy person you'llmeet.
I'm not, you know, I'm not naturally a hardcoresalesperson.
And so, you know, I just strive to find oneperson, whether if you go to a networking
(14:07):
event, which I highly suggest, but you know,the best way in the beginning to get to know
people is go where a lot of people in businessare, but just strive to talk to one person.
I'm not looking to meet 50 people that night.
I need a couple people that I made a realconnection with and really talk to people.
And you know, that doesn't mean immediatelysaying what you do and how they could buy from
(14:29):
you and let's get this going.
That is not, you know, it's aboutrelationships.
I want to know people.
We have kids, where are you from?
And you know, that just builds on itself.
Then if you can meet with them outside of thatmeeting and then, you know, I work hard to get
everybody on LinkedIn and connect with peopleon Facebook and, you know, get them on my
(14:50):
newsletter.
All those things just put them in my world.
But I really, really watch what's reallyhappening with people.
Like I'm on Facebook because I wanna know ifthe executive I work with or wanna work with
just went to Hawaii or lost their dog orwhatever.
That is huge connection.
(15:11):
When I can reach out and say, oh, your vacationlooked amazing.
That's not salesy, but man, do they respond.
Rarely don't get a response to that.
And so, think relationships is paying attentionto what people are interested in and be
interested genuinely.
Not, you know, you can't be fake, you got toreally be interested in people and find people
(15:35):
you have common interest with, you know.
I got huge business from hockey teams when mykids played hockey because you know where I was
at?
The ice rinks with people who had teams andneeded fundraising.
And you know, wherever you're at, be presentwith your business, but not in a salesy format.
Just, it comes up if you're just really talkingto people.
(15:57):
You know, one of my earliest sales coaches Ihad used to tell me, if you have beautiful
cookies and you never ask anybody if they wantany, you're probably never gonna get rid of
your cookies.
Right.
Yeah.
So he's like, always say what you do in a nonsales y way.
Let people know what you do.
You can when they're like, how are you doing?
(16:19):
How was your week?
Great.
But, man, we had a lot of production this weekor whatever.
Oh, what do you do?
That's, you know, it just happens and thenyou're interested in them and they're like, oh,
you're screen printing?
I need that.
So, you know, genuinely getting to know peopleis so much easier than cold calls or cold
emails or whatever.
(16:39):
That's a lot of rejection and I don't reallylike rejection.
So I just want to warmly talk to people.
I love that.
I love that.
It's such a skill that you have.
And one of Suzanne's taglines for herself ismatriarch of Zamar.
Zamar screen printing is her business companyor company.
Right?
And so, you do come across as this warm,caring, nurturing person.
(17:03):
Right?
And I think that's why it's it's easy for youto kinda build these relationships.
But that is a skill we can learn to develop andwork on.
And like you said, you've been working on itthrough your thirty years of running your
business.
And so I think that's really important advicefor us to say is people do business with
(17:25):
people, not businesses.
How we make them feel, how we make them feelseen and heard and recognized can go so far in
them wanting to do business with us.
And it doesn't have to be a big salesy push.
It can be something as simple as let's have aconversation.
I can help you Reading
(17:46):
books and going to things to learn how to makeconversation.
If that's a hard thing for you, then read up onit.
Get some things like, okay, I'm gonna ask abouttheir jewelry, comment on their beautiful red
glasses, whatever.
Think of three or four things like, okay, whenI see this person, what could I compliment them
on or whatever?
Just have something in mind then that, youknow, most people are pretty outgoing and will
(18:12):
reciprocate.
Rarely do you come up with somebody who justwon't talk back if you just come on not salesy.
If you just come on as a person, they're prettywilling to talk to you.
And you know, just capture all those people.
That's the other thing, capture them.
Once you have them, you can't be like, that wasa great conversation.
That's it, never going to talk to them again.
Like, you need to get with them on LinkedIn,you need to get them on your newsletter list,
(18:35):
you need to, you know, we do a postcardcampaign, we send out handwritten postcards to
our huge client base.
But you
know what I put on there?
How was your Hawaii vacation?
How was your new dog?
Whatever.
But I know that because I'm watching whatthey're doing and that's that relationship.
So you do have to make sure you've capturedthem in a way that it's continual.
(18:57):
One conversation isn't going to turn into ahuge sale.
I mean, it could, that's not the norm.
You're going to have to, you know, work on thatrelationship slowly.
Right, right.
And that's a great way for a leap for manypeople is going to a networking event, right?
Or maybe it's picking up the phone or reachingout to somebody and saying, Hey, do you want to
meet for a coffee?
(19:18):
And that may cause them a lot of anxiety,right?
So I think you've given some great examples ofhow to make it more conversational and taking
the pressure off of that conversation.
It's just the first of many conversations.
It's not a one and done, You buy from me or I'mout.
We're never talking again.
So if you go in with that attitude, it'sprobably not going be very successful.
(19:40):
Absolutely.
I love that way that you build relationshipsand that you really care for people and are
keeping up with what's going on with them.
Let's see if I have another question for you.
Tell us a little bit more about Zamar and whatyou do.
(20:01):
And you mentioned fundraisers before and sportsteams and some of the other people that you
work with.
So tell us a little bit about that.
I know you have these amazing web stores, sotell our listeners about those.
Yeah, we have a completely free to the end userweb stores so we can, we talk through, so say
I'm working with a sports team and you know,say they're the Eagles and they only want to
(20:26):
offer things on blue and black and pink orwhatever, they get full choice of that.
So we help them design a line of clothing andit goes up on a web store, so they may offer a
hoodie and a pair of pants and a tank orwhatever they want to offer.
They get full control over that as theorganization.
And then say, I'm going to sell that hoodie forthem too for $25 That's what we've just agreed
(20:49):
on.
I'm going to print as many as you have.
And so they listed on the web store for $30then that difference on every piece that we
sell, they get back as a fundraiser.
So it's a great way for them to get their nameout there.
And the success of those fundraisers completelyare dependent on how good a list and how well
(21:10):
you can distribute it.
So you have to have a good newsletter Facebookfollowing, a good way to get to your fans,
whoever that might be, and then they're very,very successful because I don't have access to
your people, but I can give you all thetechnology, get all the product, and make it
easy to put together.
So, some people choose to do it that way.
(21:32):
Some businesses, same thing, they get fullchoice over what kind of professional gear they
wanna sell and bags and things like that.
They may give their employees each $100 So,there's a coupon code issued, they get to go
and buy for free $100 worth of merchandise andthen we bill the corporation for those orders.
So, that's a great way they work.
(21:53):
Work with a certain amount of contractors thatwhen a new guy comes on, they need to be able
to get gear for the full five day work weekplus hats, so they just send them to the
website, they order all their stuff, it comes,and then it's billed to the company.
What that eliminates is all the headache in HR.
It is so hard when HR is busy working onpayroll and benefits and all these things, and
(22:16):
somebody comes in the office and says, I needfive small t shirts and I need a hat and I need
a beanie.
And you write that note and you write it downas a medium.
It happens a lot.
That's not their main job.
They're busy.
And then those get ordered and now they gotstock and nobody can wear and they got to
reorder the stuff.
This puts all that on the, you know, theemployee has to take that as themselves, get
(22:40):
on, do it, order the right size.
And so we just take all of that work out ofwhoever in the office is trying to gather that,
is not an easy I know that.
You know, and then the same thing, if you get100 orders that come in, usually the box goes
to the business person and now they're like,okay, Sarah's a medium and Bob's a large.
(23:01):
We take all that out of people's hands.
We basically put their garments in a bag and itsays Bob's items and what it is, and all they
have to do is hand him his bag.
Our phone number's on there.
If the size is not right, if whatever's notgoing, we handle all of that.
So, we just make it super streamlined and easyfor businesses to work with us, organizations,
(23:23):
anybody who just needs merchandise into theirpeople's hands.
Nice, nice.
I know working as a, you know, my kids were inschool and working for swim teams and the band
association and all that stuff and trying tokeep inventory of so many sizes of shirts and
how many do we sell, then you gotta store themsomewhere.
And they didn't sell this year, but we have adifferent design next year, so we got all these
(23:46):
old shirts.
It just becomes a nightmare.
And these web stores are just so brilliant.
And the fact that you don't have to distributethem, you can just have them shipped directly
to the person if you want to.
And the person running the organization doesn'teven have to touch the items, which is so nice.
It's just such a great way.
And if they need fundraisers, it's easy.
(24:06):
Parents want to support their kids' teams.
They want to support the school, that kind ofstuff.
So if they can use it as a fundraiser, it'sjust another win win opportunity for everybody.
Everybody's used to shopping online and goingand buying things and having them shipped
directly to your home.
So if you can do that at no cost to theorganization and just really tap into, again,
(24:29):
Suzanne's knowledge and her team about what isa good hoodie versus you don't want to order
stuff, put stuff in your store that isn't goingto hold up.
So really talking to an expert about what dopeople want and helping them walk through what
do your clients want, or what do the kids want,or what do the parents want.
Do they want hoodies?
(24:49):
Do they want zip up hoodies or pullovers?
Or what different age groups might want.
So I think that's just a brilliant service thatyou offer your clients.
Thank you.
Yeah, it's been very well received.
People who end up getting the fundraiser moneyalways say this is so much more than we've ever
made in the past.
(25:09):
Because if you order 50 shirts and you get themand you have 10 left over that you clearance,
all of your profit in the 40, you just wastedclearancing the last 10.
So, yeah, this is just so much more efficientfor them to make money.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes. I love it.
I love it.
Okay.
So again we're going to put all of Suzanne'sinformation in the podcast notes.
(25:33):
Wherever you're listening or watching the videoyou
can go
to the show notes and find out how to reachSuzanne at Zamar Screen Printing.
Is it Zamar is it Zamar Inc?
What's the website?
Zamar Screen Printing.
Zamar Inc.
You're right.
The website is zamarinc.com.
Am.
Yes.
I know.
As I started to say, was like, I think it'sshorter than that.
(25:55):
It's just zamarinc
dot
Awesome.
Awesome.
Okay.
Any last advice for anybody out there, inbusiness that's ready to take a leap and doing
something?
Oh, Just do it.
Don't be paralyzed by your circumstance.
Just because it didn't work today, just do it.
(26:17):
You have to try things, you have to be brave,and sometimes it's just taking that leap when
you're pretty sure this is not gonna work, butjust do it.
You have to be brave.
You didn't get into business to have everythingbe simple and somebody to tell you what to do.
Sometimes you just have to take the leap.
You just have to do it.
And I'm happy to meet with people.
(26:37):
I talk to people for half an hour for free.
Run stuff by me.
I love to talk marketing, love to talk ideas,super happy to do that.
So if anybody wants to reach out, I would loveto chat.
Awesome, awesome.
And they can book a call with you by going toyour website?
Yes, there's a link there and you can put myCalendly link to the podcast too.
(26:59):
In the show notes as Okay, great, great.
That's wonderful.
Yes, I highly recommend, as I said at the topof the show, I highly recommend you reach out
and have a conversation with Suzanne.
You will not regret it and you'll walk away abetter person for it.
Okay, well thank you again for being a Leap forLadies community member Suzanne, and for being
(27:19):
in business for thirty one years.
Congratulations!
And if our listeners out there are listeningand you're thinking I've got to be in a
community with this amazing woman, right?
I want to spend more time with Suzanne, thenconsider joining the Leap community.
All of the information about that will be inthe show notes as well, but you can go to
successmagnified.com then hyphen join leap andget all the information about the LEAP for
(27:44):
Ladies community.
We'd love to have you join us and then youcould have your opportunity to be on the
podcast as well.
So thanks again, Suzanne, for being on thepodcast today, and I appreciate you.
And I'm so glad that I get to have you in mybusiness world as one of my mentors and
friends, and can't wait for more people to getto meet you.
Thank you so much, Mary.
(28:05):
I had a great time.
Thanks.
Good.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!